Chucktown BC 29 Mixed Reef

[divecj5]

I completely understand...I think that if I ever took down this tank and didn't have another one ready to go, I can easily see how it would be easier to say "oh, I can set it up later" and then never do it.

 

I have thought about getting out of the hobby before and every time I do, I get another corals, notice another cool thing in the tank, and just generally remember why I like it so much. Hard to get salt out of your veins once it's in there

[divecj5]

Quick question: for everyone that is using Chemi-Pure, how often do you usually replace it? I have noticed that the last bag that I used got really really gunked up and I just threw it out last night. It was only in there maybe a month but I think that it might have been causing a nitrate/phosphate spike. Just wanted to see what others were doing.

 

Sorry for the lack of pictures, with the nitrate/PO4 spike, the rock is covered in a nice translucent coat of algae...how nice. Just another one of those algae cycles my tank seems to go through occasional. Seems odd since it's not like i ever change my feeding or water change schedule.

[spanko]

I have been changing both the Chemi-pure Elite and the Purigen every 3 months. Have not had a problem yet.

[divecj5]

That's what I was thinking would be the right amount of time.

 

Where do you keep both in your BC29?

[spanko]

 

The two gray squares represent the Chemipure and Purigen. I have recently laid them both on the bottom with the Chaeto on the top of them and moved the heater to the first chamber. This move may in fact cause a more frequent need to change as water is more or less forced to go through them rather than just circulate aroung them. Time will tell.

[divecj5]

Awesome Henry....do you have a picture of your drip tray? Did you make it yourself? I have been going NUTS with the waterfall noise going from Chamber 1 to Chamber 2. I currently just use a blue sponge to break up the water flowing down but I am getting tired of the sponge falling.

[spanko]

Here is a crude drawing of what I did. Pretty easy and has gotten rid of the waterfall noise completely. For the pads on it I cut down a pc. of phosphate pad and a pc. of carbon pad and put it on the tray. Change them once a week at water change time.

 

 

 

 

Oh well here is a full pic. of the back.

 

[divecj5]

Awesome...that is exactly what I was looking for. Looks like I may be going out to try and make one of these soon. I have zero experience with acrylic so I'm not sure how successful I will be. I guess I won't know til I try.

[spanko]

Would not have to be acrylic, could be any kind of plastic. I just happened to have some extra laying around.

[PodRod]

Hey Adam!

 

Happy Birthday for your tank!!!!!!!!!!! You've really came a long way on the tank this year and I'd love to see some current pics, but I understand about the green algae and the need to wait.

 

I'm finally back in town and trying to catch up a little this evening. I had a great vacation but it's nice to be back home. I had a great visit with Weetie while in Knoxville this week. She is simply amazing and it's always nice to meet people on the forum. We'll have to plan a meeting with Dave soon...

 

BTW - I change my chemipur and purigen even 3 months for what it's worth...

[divecj5]

Thanks Karen. The tank has definitely come a long way and hopefully it continues down the same road. I am going to take some more pictures this weekend since it looks like the slime or whatever it was that was starting to coat all of the rock is starting subside. Not a clue where it came from but as long as it goes away I could care less

 

Glad to hear that you had a safe and enjoyable trip....always nice to be back in your own bed and familiar surroundings though. Glad you were able to meet up with Weetie as well...did you get any goodies for yourself? I will have to swing by your thread to see how things are going.

 

We will definitely all meet up soon....should be a lot of fun.

[Weetabix7]

Y'know, I have been feeling discouraged with my 16g as a result of a really nast slime algae coating as well, I really wish I could figure out the cause...

 

Oh, btw, nice tank dive!!!

[divecj5]

Thanks for stopping by the thread Weetie. I have been feeling discouraged as well since I can't really figure out what the root cause is. I would like to get down to the bottom of it but can't find anything that is out of whack parameters wise.

 

As a result two of my montis have been losing a little color but everything else looks good. I have just been using a turkey baster and blowing off the rocks nightly, replacing filter floss and rinsing sponges more often, and just keeping an eye on things.

 

Sound like you and Karen had a great time. Glad you could meet her since she has been a great reefing friend around here.

[spanko]

Just for my take on slime, if I haven't yet posted it here :

 

Red Slime (Cyano Bacteria)

Cyano grows on top of nutrient rich areas of low flow. There are a number of things that need to be correct or possibly corrected to combat this without the use of chemical additives. The biggest thing is to get rid of the extra nutrients.

1. Evaluate your feeding. If you are feeding more than can be eaten in about 1-2 minutes it is too much and the remainder of it is falling to the rock and sand and becoming nutrient.

2. Evaluate your flow. If you have areas in the tank where there is little to no flow this can be corrected by adding power heads or repositioning the ones you already have. You don’t need to create sand storms just have water moving over the area to keep detritus suspended in the water column for removal by your filter – skimmer.

3. Evaluate your water changes. The solution to pollution is dilution! You want to continually remove unneeded nutrients as well as replace those things that are used by the system. 10% weekly is a good change schedule. Some do 20% every other week and some vary the schedule from there, but a good start is 10% per week.

4. Evaluate your lighting schedule. About 10 hours of daylight is all that is needed.

5. If you have a cyano outbreak do the above 4 items andh:

a. At water change time siphon off the cyano first. It will come up easily almost like a blanker.

b. After siphoning stir the affected areas a little to suspend any detritus for the water change and filtering - skimming removal.

c. Use a turkey baster now and at every water change in the future to again suspend the detritus for removal by the water change and your filtering – skimming.

 

Keeping nutrient levels low to non-existent will help to avoid cyano outbreaks and any algae outbreaks as well as keep your tank and you happy happy.

 

Hope that helps.

[divecj5]

Thanks Henry. What's interesting to me is that this really isn't a green or red algae. It is more like the rock sloughing off little bits of gunk. And on some rocks, there has been this really really fine algae that is more translucent than anything else.

 

I have had both green hair algea and red slime (cyano) before but have yet to have this variety. Seems like once you get one thing in control another comes along to replace it Guess that's the way it is when we are not really truly keeping a natural reef. Natural reefs I'm sure have their fair share of algae

[spanko]

Natural reefs I'm sure have their fair share of algae

 

Interesting, I was just reading an article by Dr. Ron Shimek on algae in the reef and his take was that the pictures we see of beautiful reefs with little to no algae are not the norm. Competition is the name of the game in the wild.

This reef keeping stuff is a real challenge sometimes.

[Weetabix7]

Just speaking for myself here, what I am seeing in my reef is NOT cyano and is a totally different type of algae from what I've encountered before this.

It IS slimy and forms a skin-like coating, but it's greenish brownish and has this nasty white scurfy type stuff under it, VERY gross!

I feed daily, but it's all eaten in 1-2 mins., and the flow is good.

Hope you don't mind the hijack dive.

[spanko]

Hey Weetie! Long time no talk! Hope all is well with you and yours.

 

If you did not know Cyano is also called blue\green algae.

 

Quote:

 

Cyanobacteria

 

During a "bloom" of cyanobacteria the appearance of a body of water can be drastically changed. Color is also not always due to pigments alone. Lakes in the Swiss Alps have been know to be turned blood-red by blooms of Oscillatoria rubescens because they have refractive pseudovacuoles (not bounded by a tonoplast membrane) rather than by excessive phycoerythrin. While the Red Sea may have gotten its name from periodic blooms of Trichodesmium erythraceum, the aquatic disaster, red tide, is not caused by cyanobacteria, but instead by dinoflagellates (Pyrrophyta).

 

Why are cyanobacteria colored? The relative abundance of phycobilin pigments explain the color of cyanobacteria en masse. Microscopically, the phycocyanin (blue) pigment in combination with the chlorophyll a and the accessory pigments lead to a bluish-green color...hence the common name: blue-green algae.Species of cyanobacteria differ in their ratios of phyocyanin and phycoerythrin.

 

Cyanobacteria such as Hammatoidea, Heterohormogonium, Albrightia, Scytonematopsis, Thalopophila, Myxocarcina and Colteronema give thermal springs and geyser pools some beautiful color patterns from red to purple and the complete visible spectrum of colors between.

 

Frequently terrestrial "blooms" produce a gooey slime that is black in color; black because virtually all wavelengths of light are absorbed by the combination of chlorophyll and the accessory pigments. A disease of coral heads is caused by a cyanobacterium (Phormidium corallactinium) and is know as "black line disease." Moreover, the rocks in the supralittoral fringe (splash zone) of many tropical shores are covered with epilithic (Scytonema, Gleocapsa and Pleurocapsa) or impregnated with endolithic (Mastigocoleus) cyanobacteria . This zone is often called the "black" zone because of the color of these cyanobacteria.

 

The first cyanobacteria (Cyanophyta) appear in fossils about 2.8 billion years old. They have different biochemistry than Archaebacteria andwere the first dominant organisms to use oxygenic photosynthesis. Their photosystem splits water and uses its electrons and protons to drive photosynthesis. As a byproduct of this new reaction system, oxygen gas (O2) was produced for the first time in abundance. This was a fundamental change for Earth's atmosphere and its impact was observed in all surface layers. As cyanobacteria increased the oxygen in the atmosphere, the iron in surface sediments was oxidized into red ferric oxide.

 

In ancient sedimentary rock, the transition to an aerobic atmosphere is marked by a shift in the color of the layers from gray to red. These cyanobacteria obviously marked the planet in a very permanent way and paved the way for the subsequent evolution of oxidative respiratory biochemistry. The change in rocks occurs at about 2.5 billion years ago. This change marks the end of the Archaean Era of the Precambrian Time.

[Weetabix7]

Hmm, interesting.

 

Do you have any wrasses, dive?

I ask because I think it's possible that my wrasse may be an indirect cause of my current algae issues. I say this because he ate all the pods that I think would normally have eaten this stuff and kept it in check.

[divecj5]

Interesting, I was just reading an article by Dr. Ron Shimek on algae in the reef and his take was that the pictures we see of beautiful reefs with little to no algae are not the norm. Competition is the name of the game in the wild.

This reef keeping stuff is a real challenge sometimes.

 

I agree...many of the reefs that I've dove on in the Florida Keys are definitely not without some sort of algae being present.

 

 

Just speaking for myself here, what I am seeing in my reef is NOT cyano and is a totally different type of algae from what I've encountered before this.

It IS slimy and forms a skin-like coating, but it's greenish brownish and has this nasty white scurfy type stuff under it, VERY gross!

I feed daily, but it's all eaten in 1-2 mins., and the flow is good.

Hope you don't mind the hijack dive.

 

You and I both must have EXACTLY the same thing going on then. Mine doesn't really have a color to it at all but is more of a slime coat for sure...like you describe.

 

I too feed mainly pellets that either get gobbled up by the clowns and firefish or get eaten by the snails and shrimp. Nothing lasts very long in my tank and flow is definitely not the issue since everything is swaying away in the tank.

 

No need to apologize on the hijack....it is not a hijack if we are both having the same thing Thanks for the input...hopefully either of us can find some sort of solution to it.

 

I have cut back my lighting to 7 1/2 hours since it was 8 1/2 hours.

[airman_verde04]

Hey Adam!

 

Happy Birthday for your tank!!!!!!!!!!! You've really came a long way on the tank this year and I'd love to see some current pics, but I understand about the green algae and the need to wait.

 

I'm finally back in town and trying to catch up a little this evening. I had a great vacation but it's nice to be back home. I had a great visit with Weetie while in Knoxville this week. She is simply amazing and it's always nice to meet people on the forum. We'll have to plan a meeting with Dave soon...

 

BTW - I change my chemipur and purigen even 3 months for what it's worth...

 

Hey Adam, sorry your tank is getting some algae! I lucked out, I came home from a trip to Columbia this past weekend, and all the green stuff was gone off the rock! my snails had been busy while we were gone. anyhoo, I agree! we need to all get together soon! ....hmm.. I think my shrimp just died ??? BRB.....haha.. ok! false alarm, that was odd, she doesn't come out from her cave to often. anyways. cant wait to see some new pictures! I enjoy drooling over yours and Karens tanks!

[PodRod]

I enjoy drooling over yours and Karens tanks!

 

I was wondering what that was on the side of my tank! How many times have we told you to keep your mouth shut when viewing the tanks!!!!

 

Seriously, let's get together soon....

[airman_verde04]

I was wondering what that was on the side of my tank! How many times have we told you to keep your mouth shut when viewing the tanks!!!!

 

Seriously, let's get together soon....

 

I'm free Sundays, and every other Monday (we're adult leaders for a scout troop) how about we start throwing some tentative dates around?

[divecj5]

Just throw out some dates and I can pretty easily work something out. Just will have to run the dates by the wifey and go from there.

 

Quick question for everyone that uses Chemi-Pure, do you usually give it a good rinse before putting it in the tank? I didn't the last time and although it didn't affect anything, it made the tank nice and cloudy for about 4-5 hours. I know when I used to use a Phosban reactor that I would give the carbon and Phosban a good rinse with RO-DI before hooking it up.

[spanko]

Yes I rinse mine to get the dust out.